Bonds's Team Has Trouble
Deciding Who's on First

By

Justin Scheck

Updated Dec. 6, 2007 12:01 a.m. ET

Over two days last week, baseball star Barry Bonds tried to persuade top San Francisco defense lawyer John Keker to represent him in a federal perjury case. But the talks started faltering when the multimillionaire slugger asked Mr. Keker to handle his case at a steep discount, say several people briefed on the conversations.

Mr. Keker, who charges a $900 hourly rate, thought the request was ridiculous, these people say -- especially since Mr. Bonds made nearly $60 million in salary between 2005 and 2007 alone. Mr. Keker also balked at the player's demand to have an out-of-town law firm review the bills. Most importantly, Mr. Keker was concerned he wouldn't have control over Mr. Bonds's public relations and legal strategies and bridled at the prospect of collaborating with the player's current legal team.

ENLARGE

Bonds after 756th career home run

Mr. Keker, who has represented former Enron Corp. executive Andrew Fastow, among others, declined to comment. An attorney for Mr. Bonds said he wasn't available for comment.

Yesterday, Mr. Bonds was nearing a deal with
Cristina Arguedas,
a well-regarded defense lawyer based in Berkeley, Calif., said people familiar with the situation. Her last-minute hiring after the failed overture to Mr. Keker -- four years after Mr. Bonds was called to testify before a grand jury probing a San Francisco Bay Area steroids dealer and two days before his arraignment for lying to that grand jury about steroids use -- is just the latest trouble to hit Mr. Bonds's legal strategy. Mr. Bonds, whose arraignment tomorrow will unfold in San Francisco federal court, has seen his legal moves repeatedly backfire as his lawyers have angered prosecutors and squabbled with one another.

Much of the disarray can be traced back to Mr. Bonds's advisers. Unlike many celebrity defendants who respond to legal woes with flotillas of high-paid lawyers and public-relations experts, Mr. Bonds has largely depended on a high-school friend who works as a private investigator and bodyguard for guidance on hiring lawyers and laying out legal strategy, say several people working on the case. Meanwhile, his legal team has been spearheaded by Michael Rains, an attorney who usually defends police officers accused of misconduct in state court and who has little federal experience. In August, the slugger added John Burris, a plaintiffs lawyer with whom Mr. Rains has a contentious history, and whom Mr. Rains didn't want on the case.

Under this team, Mr. Bonds has done little to polish his troubled public image and has seen his legal team blindsided by an indictment for which they had no ready public response. As a result, the 43-year-old player may face a prison term of one to two years if convicted.

At issue is whether Mr. Bonds lied in 2003 when he told a grand jury that he never knowingly used steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. To gain a conviction, prosecutors will have to prove Mr. Bonds took steroids and knew at the time what they were. Mr. Bonds has publicly said he has never knowingly taken such substances.

When it became clear to Mr. Bonds in 2003 that he would be called as a witness in the investigation of Balco, a Burlingame, Calif., supplement maker that he had been a client of, he turned to Danny Molieri, a high-school friend and former police officer. It was Mr. Molieri who referred the ballplayer to Mr. Rains, a Pleasant Hill, Calif., attorney who is known in local police circles for being the go-to lawyer for police officers with legal problems, say people involved with the case. Mr. Molieri declined to comment.

After he was hired, Mr. Rains, a 57-year-old former police officer himself, quickly went on the offensive. While defense lawyers and prosecutors involved in federal criminal probes in San Francisco usually stay in regular contact, Mr. Rains did the opposite. He publicly accused Mr. Bonds's prosecutors of using the grand jury as a "perjury trap" for the baseball player. Later, he was quoted by the New York Daily News as saying, "I've kicked their [prosecutors'] ass in private, I'll continue to kick their ass in public." Since then, his only communication with prosecutors has been a series of critical letters he has sent them, says Laura Enos, a San Francisco lawyer who handles Mr. Bonds's business matters. Mr. Rains declined to comment.

ENLARGE

Bonds leaves court after his 2003 testimony.

Last year, after two San Francisco Chronicle reporters published a book accusing Mr. Bonds of steroid use using grand-jury transcripts leaked to them by a lawyer in the Balco probe, Mr. Rains announced his client was going to sue the authors. But rather than questioning the veracity of the book's claims, the suit asserted that the book was based on illegally obtained information -- prompting sports columnists to say the suit amounted to an admission by Mr. Bonds because he didn't deny the book's allegations. The suit was dropped after a San Francisco judge declined to freeze the authors' profits.

In August, Mr. Bonds tried again to stem cheating charges after Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling accused him of admitting to steroid use. Mr. Bonds retained Todd Schneider, an employment lawyer recommended by Mr. Molieri. Mr. Schneider says he then contacted Mr. Burris, an Oakland, Calif., plaintiffs lawyer, to be in charge of responding to public accusations against Mr. Bonds. But there was a problem: Mr. Burris had previously opposed Mr. Rains in several high-profile cases, and there was little love lost between the two. In 1992, Mr. Rains had threatened to sue Mr. Burris for allegedly bringing unfair charges in a Berkeley, Calif., police brutality case. The two lawyers also clashed in 2002 litigation over a group of Oakland police offices accused of brutality. Mr. Rains won two mistrials in the criminal case, but Mr. Burris nabbed an $11 million settlement for alleged victims of the officers.

So Mr. Rains lobbied hard against Mr. Bonds hiring Mr. Burris, say people briefed on the case. Apart from the animosity between the two lawyers, Mr. Rains felt that any defamation suit Mr. Burris might file on Mr. Bonds's behalf would yield little result, since libel laws generally protect speech about public figures.

Nevertheless, Mr. Burris did threaten a suit against Mr. Schilling in August before abandoning the idea. Still, Mr. Burris, a former prosecutor, says he continues to monitor public statements for potential defamation suits.

Since then, Mr. Burris has spoken publicly for Mr. Bonds on criminal and civil issues -- even though he and Mr. Rains aren't in contact. When Mr. Bonds was indicted on perjury charges last month, Mr. Burris says he learned of the development from reporters. He says he wasn't given a copy of the response that Mr. Rains had prepared, though Mr. Burris gave extended interviews about the criminal case to journalists. "I wasn't part of the process," says Mr. Burris.

Mr. Burris is critical of Mr. Rains's handling of the case, saying he believes Mr. Rains's attacks provoked prosecutors. "I don't believe in antagonism for the sake of antagonism," he says. Had he been in charge, Mr. Burris says he would have kept an open line of communication with prosecutors.

Ms. Enos, the business lawyer for Mr. Bonds, says Mr. Keker was at the top of a list she and Mr. Rains compiled of federal defense lawyers to recruit for the case. While it is possible Mr. Keker could still take the case if Mr. Bonds drops his demands for control, the slugger's representatives have contacted other Bay Area lawyers, and he is especially hoping to hire Ms. Arguedas, say people familiar with their talks. Ms. Arguedas declined to say whether she plans to represent Mr. Bonds.

Mr. Bonds remains concerned about attorney pricing. One Bay Area defense lawyer who charges substantially lower rates than Mr. Keker says that when the the Bonds camp recently contacted him about joining the case, his representatives again asked to have legal bills reviewed by an independent firm -- something he had never before heard.

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